Man arrested in hunt for South African township murder of British honeymooner's new wife

28-year-old Swede was shot three times in chest and dumped at roadside by men who hijacked them on taxi tour

Picture of happiness: Shrien and Anni Dewani are seen on their wedding day in
India in new pictures released today. They were two weeks into their Cape Town honeymoon when they made the fatal
decision to leave the safer tourist areas

Police investigating the South Africa township murder of honeymooner Anni Dewani have arrested a male suspect, it has emerged.

A 26-year-old and from Cape Town's Khayelitsha slum is being held at a police station in connection with the slaying.

The search continues for a second man after the brutal murder of British tourist Shrien Dewani's new wife, who was 28. Police officers have told Mr. Dewani that they now know the identity of the second suspect.

Speaking about the latest developments last night, Mr Dewani, 30, from Westbury-on-Trym near Bristol, said: 'It's good news.

'The police are very positive they have the right guy.

'They have told me that all the elements match: forensics, accent, background and alibi.'

Mr Dewani revealed how he pleaded with the kidnappers not to separate them after they were hijacked in a taxi.

The couple had made a spontaneous
decision to tour 'the real South Africa' with tragic consequences.

Mr Derani said they put a gun in his
ear and pushed him out of the moving taxi. As he sprawled by the
roadside in a Cape Town slum, they drove his bride into the night.

Just hours later her body was found
inside the abandoned taxi. She had been shot at least three times in the
chest, and a post-mortem examination could confirm fears she was also
sexually assaulted.

Speaking at a press conference in
Cape Town today, Western Cape community safety minister Albert Fritz
said: 'We can confirm that South African Police Service officers have
effected an arrest in the case of the murder of the British tourist who
was murdered on Saturday night or Sunday morning.

'We can confirm that it was a male
suspect and that he is now in police custody.

Scroll down for video report

Tragic: Smiling Anni (right) and Shrien Dewani pictured on their wedding day
less than two weeks ago. Anni died after their taxi was hijacked in
South Africa

'He will have to appear in court
within 48 hours. At this stage we cannot comment on what he might be
charged with, that will all form part of the investigation.'

Local tourism minister Alan Winde
said: 'This is is great news and a significant development in this case.
It represents the result of almost three days of very hard work from
the police.

'They are continuing their
investigation as we speak.'

Officials today said the suspect
could be charged and face trial within days under fast track justice
rules brought in ahead of this year's football World Cup.

Mr Fritz added: 'Obviously the
suspect has rights but we would want to see justice as quickly as
possible. If was could do it this week then that would be excellent.'

Yesterday, 30-year-old Mr Dewani told
how he felt powerless at being unable to save his wife, whom he had
married just weeks earlier.

‘Of course I have an enormous amount
of guilt about the whole episode,’ he said. ‘However, having gone
through events over and over again in my mind, it is difficult to see
how we could have done things differently.’

Together: The couple in a picture posted on a Facebook tribute page

The couple had arrived in the country
last week and spent an ‘idyllic’ four days on safari in the Kruger
National Park.

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On Friday they moved to Cape Town and
after spending Saturday lounging by their hotel pool, decided to head
out.

At Cape Town’s five-star Cape Grace
Hotel where the couple had been staying, Mr Dewani said: ‘We spent an a
hour-and-a-half driving around the city. At around 9pm, we headed to
Somerset West (a suburb 30 miles away).

‘It was a beautiful evening and we
walked along the beach and ate at a place right on the seafront. We had
been planning on just coming back to the city centre and having a drink
in the Waterfront area.’

But then they decided to leave the
safer tourist areas and have a look at a township in the city.

The car in which Anni Dewani was found murdered is towed from the crime scene last month

Evidence: Blood beneath a door on the car will be examined by forensic experts

‘Anni grew up in Sweden, and she felt
as if the area around this hotel was just like at home: so clean and
safe, and maybe a bit sterile. She had never been to Africa before, so
she suggested that we should have a look at the “real Africa”.

‘The stop was on the way back here
and was intended so that we could experience a township. We were barely
in the Gugulethu township when the attack happened.

‘We had just turned off the junction
and were stopped at a set of traffic lights. It was two African male
gunmen.

‘They were
banging their guns on the
windows. One of them was using his gun to smash the driver’s window.
Until this happened we had been completely oblivious. We were sitting in
the back of the cab going through all the pictures of our safari.

‘The first we knew that the cab was
being attacked was when we heard the banging. I don’t want to go into
detail about what happened during the attack, because I will probably
start crying. But they were so cold. They put a gun in my ear and pulled
back the trigger – it really was the stuff of movies.’

Mr Dewani, from Westbury-on-Trym,
near Bristol, who owns a series of care homes, told how the attackers
forced the taxi driver out of the cab and took off at speed with the
couple in the back.

Crime scene: Shrien and Anni's stolen vehicle was found in Lingelethu West, Khayelitsha in Cape Town

Poverty: Shacks in Khayelitsha township, where Anni was killed

He said that he and his wife, who had
married in India, were together for 20 minutes as it hurtled around the
township’s dark streets and the two men took their valuables.

‘The men kept on saying, “We are not
going to hurt you. We just want the car.” That was a lie. Most of the
conversation in the car was us pleading for us to be dumped together. I
held on to Anni as I said to them, “Look, if you’re not going to hurt
her why don’t you let us go?”.’

Soon the gunmen threw him out of the
hijacked taxi’s window.

Recommendation: Jamie Oliver at Mzoli's restaurant near Cape Town

‘Just before they dumped me, they
insisted to me that they were going to dump her a few minutes later in a
different place. They just said they didn’t want to dump us together. I
resisted, but they eventually forced me out the back of the passenger
window. I landed on a patch of sand, landing first on my shoulder and
then forehead. It was in the middle of the township.

‘It must have been around 10pm or
10.15pm. I knocked on the doors of some shacks, but no one opened up.
Then I noticed a man who was putting away his car and he agreed to call
the police. The police took 25 minutes to arrive, during which time I
just stood there, in the dark.

‘When they did arrive, the police
drove around slowly. It was extremely frustrating.’

By about 1am on Sunday, the police
response had ‘ratcheted up several gears’, he added. ‘It was around
10.30am on Sunday when they found Anni’s body dumped in the back of the
taxi in another township, miles from where we were picked up.’

Mrs Dewani had recently graduated
from a product design course at university in Sweden. She was to move to
London after their honeymoon, a prospect which Mr Dewani said
‘absolutely thrilled her’.

Recalling his wife, he said: ‘She
loved people and she loved life and she was always, always happy.’

At home in Sweden, her father Vinod
Hindocia described his daughter as ‘the most beautiful woman you can
imagine’.

Family members have travelled to Cape
Town to support Mr Dewani, who said he was initially suspicious the
taxi driver may have tipped off the robbers. ‘We couldn’t understand how
they knew about us. Initially I had a lot of suspicion about the
driver. But he spent all of Sunday helping the police and was able to
answer all the police’s questions. By the end, I quite liked him.’

‘I don’t know if you believe in fate,
but prior to last Saturday we had spoken to literally no one while we
were on honeymoon. However, on the afternoon of the attack, Anni
suggested that we should talk to our families. We phoned them all: our
parents, grandparents and aunts and told them what a wonderful time we
were having.’

The South African Police Service
insisted it would leave ‘no stone unturned’ in its search for the
attackers. Mr Dewani said police had two suspects in mind. But by last
night, no one had been arrested.

Location: The Dewanis were attacked as they drove through Cape Town

Danger on the wild side of Cape Town

Risky: A shebeen near Cape Town

An increasing number of visitors feel the need to experience Cape Town’s ‘other side’ – the miles of impoverished slums between the city and its airport.

Organised excursions known as ‘township tours’ allow them to see how the poor – mainly black and mixed race people – eke out a living in the shacklands.

However, levels of violent crime are terrifyingly high, with carjacking, rape and murder being everyday events.

An organised daytime tour with some element of security may be relatively safe. A taxi ride into such unknown territory late at night is extremely risky.

While the Dewanis never got a chance to visit it, Mzoli’s Meat restaurant in the heart of the township in which they were hijacked was last year recommended by Jamie Oliver, who described the barbecue food as ‘heaven’ and ‘totally sexy’.

Many of the township tour operators end their trips with a visit to one of the informal drinking dens, called shebeens. Raucous and usually great fun, they stay open until the early hours.

Yesterday a spokesman for Zipping Zebra Tours said the murder was ‘just shocking’, particularly as her company has had ‘no incidents’ in the 16 years it has been operating.

But Alvin Kushner, chairman of the Tour Operators’ Association of Cape Town, warned: ‘People should always travel with tour guides. A guide wouldn’t have gone at that time of night.’

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Man arrested in hunt for South African murder of honeymooner Anni Dewani